washing machine

An old-style 14-inch hard disk in a floor-standing
cabinet. So called because of the size of the cabinet and the
"top-loading" access to the media packs - and, of course, they
were always set on "spin cycle". The thick channel cables
connecting these were called "bit hoses". The
washing-machine idiom transcends language barriers; it is even
used in Russian hacker jargon.